Wales ran in 5 unanswered tries in a surprising second-half efficiency at Cardiff Arms Park to surge to WXV 2 2024 qualification with a 52-20 victory in opposition to Spain.
The end result additionally confirms the hosts’ place at Girls’s Rugby World Cup 2025 and offers Ioan Cunningham’s facet one thing to construct on following their disappointing Girls’s Six Nations marketing campaign.
Wales – who appeared within the inaugural WXV 1 match final yr – completed backside of the Six Nations desk in April, with just one win from their 5 matches, that means they wanted to beat Spain on Saturday to keep away from taking part in within the third degree this September and October.
Fixture
Girls’s Internationals
Wales Girls’s
Spain Girls
A chic second-half hat-trick from winger Carys Cox helped Wales guide their tickets to South Africa, having rotated solely some extent in entrance at 21-20. The heartbroken Spanish will console themselves with a spot in WXV 3 in Dubai.
It regarded as if Wales would canter to victory early on in Cardiff as tries from Alex Callender and Abbie Fleming had been transformed by Keira Bevan to place the hosts 14-0 up.
Spain refused to buckle, although, and took benefit of Cox’s time within the sin bin to attain 15 unanswered factors of their very own and take the lead.
Following an Amalia Argudo penalty, Spain scored tries by Ines Antolinez and Claudia Peña. Argudo had arrange the primary of these with an electrical break, and he or she transformed prop Antolinez’s rating too.
Participant of the Match Alisha Joyce-Butchers scored her first attempt of the match to assist Wales regain the lead shortly after Peña’s effort. However there was nonetheless time earlier than half-time for Claudia Perez to deliver Spain inside one level with a effective end from a lineout transfer.
Cox made amends for her earlier yellow card inside six minutes of the restart, breaking by three tried tackles to attain her first attempt of the match.
Following a TMO verify, Joyce-Butchers was awarded her second rating 10 minutes later, earlier than Bevan added her fifth successive conversion, to place the Wales 35-20 in entrance.
And within the closing quarter, the house facet took full benefit of their guests’ tiring legs with Cox crossing the whitewash twice extra, both facet of a Jenny Hesketh attempt.
“It feels nice,” Joyce-Butchers mentioned after the match. “I really feel like we actually deserved that immediately. We’ve labored actually laborious for it.
“I do know we haven’t collectively lengthy as a gaggle. It’s nice to get a win and transfer on swiftly from that Six Nations.”
Victory capped a memorable day for Joyce-Butchers, who had earlier develop into an aunty.
She added: “It’s been a fantastic construct up this week. I believe we’ve proven glimpses there of what we are able to do once we preserve the ball and we’ve got the ball in our arms.
“We’ll undoubtedly look to kick on in WXV 2 with that as nicely.”
